YAWABF
by ShadoutCarver
Summary: Yet Another What About Bob Fic


Disclaimer: belongs to Jim Butcher and Scifi channel.  
Rating: PG  
Book or TV verse  
Warnings:Mild Language , spoilers for What About Bob  
Summary: Yet Another What About Bob Fic

Ever have one of those plot ideas that just take up residence and refuse to leave? Next thing you know they are painting the walls and choosing china patterns. I had to evict it.

---

"Come out, Ghost"

Nothing had ever quite shocked me as emerging from my skull to find Morningway staring at me five years after Harry had killed him. It chilled me to the bone – figuratively speaking.

"I need you to perform a little black magic."

I always knew Justin Morningway was insane. I had never thought him stupid. Well, being in touch with his own or anyone else's humanity had never been his strong suit.

"Serve yourself." The copy claimed to have the secret for restoring my mortality.

I could briefly regain mortality for perhaps a hundred years before returning to my cursed state. All I had to do was bring the monster I hated with all my soul back to life.

"Lost love" he told me, "the love I'm talking about Bob is the love of life, your life."

That crazy bastard really did have a talent for misreading people. I never lost my love of life. I could not lose what I'd never had at least not until Winifred had come into my heart. She was gone and had been gone for centuries, taking with her all hope and love I'd had for mortal life.

I tried to clear my mind; I needed to be calm, to play along, to find out what I needed to know before formulating a plan.

I stared at my skull as it rested in Morningway's ornate shielded birdcage. Even in death he felt the need to belittle me. I put my hand through the cage and my skull.

"Bob. Have you decided?"

I glared at the copy and nodded my head. I had the beginnings of a plan now.

"What about Harry" I asked him.

I wanted him out of this. I didn't want him anywhere near this.

"There's no choice, Harry must be the battery"

I let it slide. I couldn't allow the Morningway copy to sense my desperation. It wasn't hard to fool him.

Then he brought out the arrow. That damned arrow. Where the **hell** had he gotten that … thing? I couldn't take my eyes off it. I barely registered that fact that Morningway was still talking. I did not hear what he was babbling on about. My mind had forcibly jerked me back in time. I could smell the horses, the forest; hear the sounds of shouting as the council wardens closed in. See Winifred's eyes go wide in fear.

The arrow hit me square in the chest, where it should have hit centuries ago. Where it had originally been aimed and would have found its mark, if Winifred had not interfered to save me. Now it finally hit home. Energy and green light surrounded me and I was gone. A vivid recall of events I had suppressed for half a millennium.

_Winifred had seen it first. The arrow had come through the forest trees. I had not realized the hunters had gotten so close. She spurred her horse into the arrows path and it impaled her. She slid bonelessly from her mount and was dead before she hit the ground. I was off my horse and at her side in seconds, but it was too late. I cradled her in my arms. I was crying shamelessly. This time I would not be able to bring her back. This time I would follow her._

_The wardens closed in all too quickly. I saw boots and hooves. I heard them speaking to me, something about a sentence, but I did not understand the words._

_The inexplicable gentleness they showed me at the end of my life astonishes me to this day. They took my arms and lifted Winifred's body from me with respectful silence. I sensed someone behind me. She knelt and reached around my shoulders and held me against herself. She was speaking soothing words in my ears, while others held out my arms and rolled up my sleeves. I didn't feel the manacles at the time. _

_I knew they were making a circle, intoning a powerful spell. My killer held me, softly humming a wordless lullaby into my ear. It was only when The Merlin approached me with the ornate silver bowl that I looked around me. I saw the circle, the markings and I understood. They were going to damn me to eternal torture. I would never be able to follow Winifred to the other side. _

_I whimpered in abject fear then, ashamed even as the sounds came from my throat. My killer whispered in my ear so only I could hear. _

"_Take heart, Hrothbert of Bainbridge, your love is beyond our reach, we cannot curse her as well. She is free."_

_I shall be eternally grateful to her, my killer, my first owner and master._

_The spell required my life's blood, I knew. I felt a knife against my throat and leaned back, letting my head rest on my killer's shoulder and cheek. Let it be over. I barely felt it as she cut just deeply enough to slit my jugular. I briefly watched my blood flow into the silver bowl ; then closed my eyes and slipped into darkness._

I was pulled from the memories when a skull came flying at me. I caught it. I **caught** it. I stared in wonder at the simple pleasure of holding something. I saw the shielding spell vanish.

"Bob" Mornigway-lite said "Life goes on." The bastard could be incredibly dense.

"Now it's time to keep your part of the bargain."

I flipped my old skull and caught it again.

.I felt Harry sense it. He knew I was here now. He would be coming for me, just as Morningway had planned.

I knew what I had to do now. I had to convince both Morningway and Harry that my betrayal was total. I did not care what Harry did to me after this ordeal was over, as long as I succeeded.

I would need everything I had now to keep up the pretense, direct the energies that would destroy Morningway forever, eliminate all possibility of his return and save Harry. He was my master, my student, my friend and -- in the deepest recesses of my mind that I dare not often visit – my son.

I had to win this.


End file.
